Community advocates earn Goldbloom award

Three advocates for the city’s most vulnerable are being awarded the Sheila and Victor Goldbloom Distinguished Service Award by the Quebec Community Groups Network.

News Desk

Updated: September 21, 2014

James Hughes, a former executive director of the Old Brewery Mission, will receive the Sheila and Victor Goldbloom Distinguished Service Award by the Quebec Community Groups Network. Marie-France Coallier / The Gazette

MONTREAL — Three advocates for the city’s most vulnerable are being awarded the Sheila and Victor Goldbloom Distinguished Service Award by the Quebec Community Groups Network.

Eric Maldoff, Marjorie Sharp and James Hughes are the recipients of this year’s award, on the sixth year they are being handed out. They’ll receive their honours at a ceremony at Montreal’s St. James Club on Oct. 23.

Hughes was a longtime executive director of the Old Brewery Mission. He is also the co-founder of Youth Employment Services, a non-profit organization that helps young English-speaking Montrealers find jobs.

He also started a mentoring program called the Prometheus Project, to provide mentors for students at risk of dropping out of high school.

Hughes is currently the president of the Graham Boeckh Foundation, which helps those suffering from mental illness.

Maldoff has worked as an advocate for minority language rights and worked to improve access to health and social services. He was the chairperson of the Montreal Children Hospital for 17 years and was one of the architects of the McGill University Health Centre, a merger of five English-language hospitals. He is a leader in the city’s Jewish community and was also a founding volunteer president of Alliance Quebec, and worked with the Quebec Council of Minorities.

Sharp has been active as a lawyer and a volunteer advocating for the rights of women, the elderly and children.

She helped establish L’Abri en Ville for people with mental-health issues, Auberge Madeleine for battered women, and Elder-Aide for seniors. She worked with the YMCA, Camp Cosmos for underprivileged children, and the Christ Church Cathedral and its affiliated Social Services Society. She also sat on the Ethics Review Boards at the Royal Victoria Hospital, and donated her time and expertise as a lawyer.

“These are wonderful individuals who devoted their considerable skills to improve the lives of their peers and who truly represent the values of community leadership for which this award was created,” QCGN board member and jury chair Irene Tschernomor said in a statement.

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